The U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, a federal agency, has approved plans for a commemorative gold coin featuring one of President Donald Trump’s recent portraits.
A Trump-appointed committee voted unanimously Thursday to mint the coins. However, the legality of such efforts has been repeatedly questioned.
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Federal law prohibits depictions of living presidents on U.S. currency. However, Thursday’s coins may circumvent this rule because they are intended as souvenirs and not for circulation as currency.
Still, the Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to include the president’s face on the $1 coin, in addition to commemorative gold coins.
Critics denounced both efforts as illegal and unsuitable for the incumbent leadership.
“Monarchs and dictators put their faces on the coin, not the leaders of a democracy,” Sen. Jeff Merkley told news agency Reuters.
The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a bipartisan federal committee, has previously opposed efforts to mint Trump-themed coins.
One committee member, Donald Scarinci, said both the commission and the Fine Arts Commission would approve such a design.
“But we still fully expect them to go ahead and mint both coins,” Scarinci said of the committee.
One side of the gold coin features a bald eagle and the other side features President Trump with his fists on a table, staring straight ahead.
The image is a reproduction of a black-and-white image of Trump taken by photographer Daniel Torok and displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
“I know that’s a very strong, very harsh image of him,” said Chamberlain Harris, a Trump aide who was appointed to the arts commission earlier this year.
Harris suggested that Trump’s gold is going to be as big as possible. The U.S. Mint currently produces coins up to 7.6 centimeters (3 inches), which Harris said the Trump administration would aim to do.
“I think the bigger the better,” Harris said, referring to discussions with the president. “I think the president’s desire is for it to have the maximum circulation.”
Megan Sullivan, acting chief of staff at the U.S. Mint Office of Design, also said that President Trump gave approval to the design.
“It is my understanding that the Secretary of the Treasury presented this design to the President, along with other designs, and these were the President’s choices,” Sullivan said.
Since taking office for his second term, Trump has sought to leave his mark on the federal government.
In addition to the gold and $1 coins that will bear his likeness, he also has his name on the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Both initiatives are the subject of ongoing litigation. An act of Congress named the Kennedy Center as a living memorial to the late President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while in office in 1963.
Similarly, the U.S. Institute of Peace was established by Congress as an independent think tank specializing in conflict resolution.
Last March, a conflict between the company’s leadership and members of President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led to the forced evacuation of employees.
President Trump also displayed his face in the form of long banners on government buildings around Washington, D.C.
Even the architecture of the city is changing to reflect his tastes. Last October, he demolished the east wing of the White House to make way for a huge ballroom and plans to build an Arc de Triomphe in the capital similar to the one in Paris, France.
President Trump has proposed a number of reforms as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, which will culminate this July.
At Thursday’s meeting to discuss the gold coin, Trump officials reiterated their assertion that celebrating Trump is a good way to mark the anniversary.
“I think it’s appropriate to commemorate the 250th anniversary by featuring a sitting president who governs the country on a commemorative coin,” Harris said.
